Macbeth cannot rid his mind of thoughts about murdering Duncan for long. As soon as Lady Macbeth hears his news from the letter that he writes to her, she immediately begins to think evil thoughts saying that Macbeth is “too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness”. She goes on to appear almost pure evil to the audience in her soliloquy where she says, “Come, you spirit that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me her and fill me from the crown to the toe topfull of direst cruelty”.
She wants evil spirits to turn her into a man and fill her whole body with evil. At this point we feel sorry for Macbeth having such a monster as a wife. She is the one who keeps alive the thoughts of murdering Duncan in Macbeth’s mind. In scene seven of act one Macbeth wrestles with his conscience over whether he should go through with the murder or not. Then when he goes to speak to Lady Macbeth he has decided that he does not want to go any further, he says, “We will proceed no further in this business.” His reason for this decision being “He hath honoured me of late.” Meaning Duncan. He starts off sure that he no longer wants anything to do with the murder and then Lady Macbeth changes his mind saying, “What beast was’t then that made you break this enterprise to me? When you durst do it, then you were a man.” She asks Macbeth what monster forced him to tell her of his thoughts for the killing of Duncan.
She questions his manhood and after more cajoling he changes his mind and gives in to her, at the end of the scene he says, “I am settled.” Lady Macbeth turns him about face and persuades him to go through with the murder of Duncan. It could be said that from what we see of Macbeth during this scene that he is weak and not strong enough to tell his wife what he wants to do, and therefore he does not deserve our sympathy. Although on the other hand from what we have seen of Lady Macbeth so far she seems like a monster. It could be argued that she may be too evil to resist and that we should therefore have sympathy for Macbeth for just trying to stand up to her. However he loves her. Though we may think he is too weak to stand up to his wife and may look on him as no good, but he potentially is evil too. Should not those who are weak be the ones who deserve the most pity? This can be argued either way and different people will say different things, so some may feel more sympathy for him and others less.
On the other hand we cannot say that it is Lady Macbeth’s fault that Macbeth goes through with the murder. However much she cajoles him, it was Macbeth’s mind that first came up with the idea. He does everything entirely of his own freewill, Lady Macbeth really just keeps the idea alive in his mind and keeps him on track with what he originally intended to do. When Macbeth imagines the dagger leading him on to murder Duncan, he is avoiding making any conscious rational decision about the murder he is about to go through with. But while letting himself be led on by his imagination, he is aware of what he is doing is wrong. This is where Roman Polanski’s film version of Macbeth can provide us with a clearer insight into why Macbeth goes through with the murder. As he comes into Duncan’s chamber he seems to suddenly realise that what he is doing is wrong and begins to try and back away, but then Duncan wakes up and Macbeth is in a terrible situation, he is standing over the king with daggers in his hands and therefore has very little choice but to go through with the murder. He had already really given in to evil before killing Duncan, he had surrendered to his vision and entered the room with daggers in his hands, he kills Duncan to protect himself. The film version would then give Macbeth a clear reason to go through with the murder when it is apparent afterwards that he regrets it so much, he seems in no fit state of mind to be capable of murder before or after as he is in such indecision. The fact that Shakespeare leaves out the murder scene means that we have to make up our own minds about what goes on after Macbeth enters Duncan’s chamber. Some will think differently compared to others about what actually happens, hence different people will have differing levels of sympathy for Macbeth after this scene. I myself think that Polanski’s interpretation is extremely effective and appeals to me as the most likely set of events after Macbeth enters Duncan’s chamber. What we have to ask ourselves is why Shakespeare does not include the murder scene, does he, in not showing us the murder, let us push away the thought that Macbeth really is evil and that he is in fact a cold blooded murder?
After the murder we see that Macbeth instantly regrets the killing of his king, he says, “Wake Duncan with thy knocking: I would thou couldst.” Macbeth is in a great panic, he fears that they will be found out at the first moment, “Whence is that knocking?/How is’t with me, when every noise appals me?” We can see that he regrets what he has done and, in a roundabout way, we feel sorry for him, regardless of the fact that he has just killed the King of Scotland. He was tricked into the murder by his imagination and comes out feeling awful, showing his compassion, making himself seem the very opposite of a cold-blooded murderer. He feels so bad that he does not think all the blood in the oceans would be able to clean his hands; rather his hands would turn the oceans red with blood. “Will all great Neptune’s oceans wash this blood clean from my hand? No: this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red.”
After this we feel much more sympathetic towards Macbeth, especially in the light of his wife who seems entirely unaffected by the whole business, “ My hands are of your colour, but I shame/To wear a heart so white.” Also with, “A little water clears us of this deed,” it is as if they had put their hands in mud rather than killed their king, she seems cold hearted and evil. In comparison to her, Macbeth seems much kinder and therefore receives more sympathy than perhaps he is due.
After the murder of Duncan a change appears in Macbeth, he becomes more like his wife, and then a string of murders follow. First of all is Banquo’s and what should be noted here is that Macbeth orders these men, who are the lowest of the low, to go and kill his best friend. He is now the king of Scotland, why does he not send proper soldiers? This reflects back on Macbeth, we see him even less now as a great soldier, he is getting his dirty work done by men who cannot even be counted as mercenaries. Once they have done the murder and return to Macbeth, it is apparent that he has become hardened to killing those who he cares about when he asks the question, “Is he dispatched?” Almost as if Banquo’s murder was the delivery of goods to a buyer and not the murder of his closest friend. This causes us to lose much of our sympathy for Macbeth. Nonetheless he does not escape easily from Banquo, he is haunted by Banquo’s ghost, and we can see that he is in torment. Some might say he deserved it; others may feel sorry for him, this certainly changes after the next killing that Macbeth orders…
When Macbeth has Macduff’s family killed for no reason but except pure anger because Macduff had not come to his feast and had left the country. We lose all sympathy that we had remaining for him. Now he has almost become a psychopath, the murder of Macduff’s wife and children acheives nothing and, if anything, makes certain the death of Macbeth by the sword of Macduff. Macbeth has lost all compassion and we feel angry towards him, as the murder of Macduff’s family was not needed and was hurting those who were innocent.
While Macbeth has been ordering the killings of others and tying up loose ends to look after his own welfare he has not been paying the utmost attention to his wife, whose mental condition is greatly deteriorating. When Lady Macbeth dies, Macbeth says, “She should have died hereafter; there would have been time for such a word. tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day to the last syllable of recorded time; and all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. Out, out brief candle, life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing.”
This famous speech acknowledges fully the empty mockery his life has become. After murdering his way through many to try and find peace of mind, he gradually becomes less like a human being. That is why his response to the death of his wife is so low key and bitter. However here we cannot help but feel some of his tragedy and his whole world is falling apart before him, his wife dead, a huge army amassed against him, and very soon after the prophecy about Birnam Wood comes true. The language used reflects his mood, very negative, bereft of hope, the picture of a candle being blown out and a lonely man playing to noone apart from himself in a deserted theatre. Finally Macbeth realises the frailty of his situation and resolves that he is going to at least take control over something, his own death, “Blow wind come wrack at least we’ll die with harness on our back.”
He determines to die like the soldier he was at the beginning of the play, a bold and noble death. He has regained our sympathy, and we begin to slightly look up to him again. He has got back what he thought he had lost, but always had, the ability to choose at whichever point he could, and not simply carry on with evil deeds along the path to destruction. This idea is strengthened even more by the use of rhyming couplets.
In conclusion, our sympathy for Macbeth reaches a multitude of levels throughout the play, perhaps peaking at the ‘tomorrow’ soliloquy and reaching an all time low during the murder of the Macduff’s. What I am sure of however, is that he fully regains our sympathy at the end, dying as if he were the soldier we first heard of on the battlefield. He realises that he has not had full control over himself, that he let evil thoughts drive him. He is filled with a sense of bitterness, futility and meaninglessness, forcing him to throw himself at his enemies, as he believes that his life has become meaningless.
